Group Test: Sub $300 Monitors

Viewing Angles & Light Consistency

Viewing angles and light consistency are exactly what they sound like: From what angles can you monitor your monitor without significant distortion? Does the monitor display a solid color without visual dark spots or light leakage?

Okay, we’re going to start off super-nerdy here, then translate it: with all TN monitors (TN and S-IPS are types of monitor tech; see below for details), the gamma curve of your monitor depends on the viewing angle. That mouthful is a techie way of saying that the angle at which you view a display directly corresponds to how much it distorts the color of the picture. And even when viewing head-on at a theoretical 0-degree angle from center, the TN monitors by Acer, Samsung, NEC, and Dell have significant color distortion at the edges. Because it uses S-IPS tech, only the HP doesn’t.

Though all TN panels suffer from significant distortion when viewed at an angle, especially a vertical angle--colors shift, and the screen becomes darker--it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll ever be viewing a monitor at a 160-degree vertical angle for prolonged amounts of time. However, some TN displays had significant distortion at much less extreme angles. By performing gamma-viewing angle tests, we discovered which monitors were the most sensitive to screen distortion when viewing from angles.

Checking viewing angles is one of the easiest tests consumers can perform with store monitors.

Almost immediately after leaving the head-on position, the Acer’s colors begin to warp substantially. This is a big problem for the Acer because it doesn’t allow for swiveling. Colors degrade immediately, rendering moot the viewing-angle claims of the manufacturer. The only other monitor with sparse movement capabilities, the Samsung, holds its colors and brightness to more exaggerated angles. The NEC had the worst issues with the vertical axis; slight angles nearly invert colors completely and dim the screen to unmanageable levels. In fact, just leaning in from your desk chair can distort up to a third of the screen.

In evaluating light consistency, we test whether a display is consistently lit without light or dark spots when viewing screens of a single color. Luckily, it wasn’t a considerable problem on any monitors. In most cases, when we did see instances of darker areas, they fixed themselves after several hours of testing. The NEC was the only monitor that still had light-consistency issues after several hours--and though the problems were almost imperceptible, there were slightly darker areas when performing a full screen test with a solid color (in this case, white). The Dell kept its shades well, but close scrutiny revealed a bit of light leakage and some discoloration (namely, darker spots on the screen).

Due to the HP’s S-IPS technology, colors on the ZR22w barely shifted, even at the most exaggerated angles. HP’s specs of 178 degrees horizontal and 178 degrees vertical viewing are actually accurate. Most impressive.

Viewing Angles & Light Consistency Ratings

Samsung PX2370: 4 out of 5NEC EA221WM-BK: 2.5 out of 5HP ZR22W: 4.5 out of 5Dell P2311H: 3 out of 5Acer S243HL: 2 out of 5

What's in a name?

All of the monitors we reviewed, with the exception of one, were TN panels. TN, short for “twisted nematic,” is the most common type of consumer display and the cheapest to build. Unfortunately, it also allows for quite a bit of visual distortion when viewed from angles. Looking at a solid color on TN panels will reveal a gradient effect in which a solid color varies, even from a head-on view.

The HP ZR22w was the only monitor in a different class. That class is S-IPS, or “super in-plane switching” (hey, we didn’t name it), and it allows for wide viewing angles with almost no color distortion and improved color representation. If you’ve seen an iPad, you’re already familiar with them; an IPS screen is what makes Apple’s tablet pretty from nearly every angle.